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What needs?

 

37.01 million amazing creative and editorial images.

And counting.

 

Maybe it's time for the opposite: delete 90% of your portfolios, please.

Then again, if you really have to go out and take new picturea, why not go to All of Alamy and check the 0 views?

 

wim

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.. delete 90% of your portfolios, please.

 

For those with 2/3rds similars, perhaps that's wise. But those with a carefully edited archive - and who nevertheless check the zero views - one's agency can easily mention recent requests or identify gaps from their end. They see these trends from another perspective anyway.

 

Others do. 

 

 

Richard.

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I think if this were to be done it needs managing carefully. "Picture needs" can easily turn into "really should have commissioned this" - it all depends on the detail.

 

ImageBrief (for those of you who are with that particular business model) is a case in point. An awful lot of their "picture needs" are so specific as to be "custom stock" (i.e. they should have just commissioned someone to shoot it). You have Ad agencies asking for complex set ups and getting *very* specific. So much so it's almost impossible to meet the brief unless you actually got out and shoot to their exact request. Then a "Picture need" turns into a "cheap commission" except you carry the added risk of your custom shot not being bought at all (because they've essentially "commissioned" several people to shoot the same thing at once) and if it's not sold, being so bespoke as to be useless for regular stock.

 

IMHO if a client can't find an image to run among the millions of stock images in existence today then they really should be picking up the phone and arranging a shoot.

 

J

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Maybe we should differentiate between general Picture Needs posted by Alamy as the OP stated, and picture requests by clients.

Of course I was being cynical, but there's a lot of truth in it: I started selling after I reduced my main pseudo to about 100. And I had considered my collection quite well edited.

 

I'm all for a sort of bulletin board where clients can post requests or searches. There has been a thread about that, started by JG. And sure: a lot of those (especially with longer deadlines) should be commissions. So why not treat them (read: pay them) as such.

 

wim

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No results for the search "tennis player bribe". I'm off to Eastbourne next week - I shall have to keep my eyes open.

 

("tennis cow dung India" - another search with no results. Might have to go further than Eastbourne for that one)

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There haven't been any Picture Needs for over a year.

 

No longer relevant or dropped due to lack of interest?

 

 

Richard. 

 

Richard, this was is Let Talk About Pictures from Alamy a few days ago: Picture needs. Chile / South American themed.

 

I too saw this Chile picture-needs post. It would be great to see more of these posted on a regular basis.

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  • 1 month later...

Chile or Chilly ?  Looking at my pathetic sales and the low prices achieved by Alamy who can afford to go to Chile ?  

If one went there and QC spot a blurred bird (that's another story) and mistakenly think it is a dust spot then instead of earning from your trip you are placed in the 28 working day 'sin bin'

The whole stock industry has become a farce. Please remember that Alamy, and your other agents, work for you. You do not work for them.

Best wishes to all.

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.. Alamy, and your other agents, work for you. You do not work for them.

 

This was our mantra during the 90s when we all moaned and groaned (usually over a Friday Guinness in Clerkenwell) about  - not what money we were earning - but how our agents were seemingly ineffective for our profiles (read egos).  

 

It got us nowhere because we realised the relationship was reciprocal - that we each should give and receive (admittedly, my agency Katz Pictures/IPG was as much about representation as a stock library). But if you didn't like it, you walked and many did although were never heard of again. 

 

 

Rgds,

Richard.

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